Sunday, November 19, 2017

Chennai: A man, who was found loitering near the runway at Chennai airport, was caught and handed over to police on Saturday night.
Ground staff alerted the apron control that an unidentified man was found near the runway. He was caught around 11pm and handed over to the CISF. After questioning him, the CISF handed him over to police.
The man, aged around 25, gave conflicting answers when questioned, said an airport official.
A senior airport official said, "The presence of mind of the ground handlers helped us detain the man. During questioning he told us that he had scaled the perimeter wall of the campus near the GST Road opposite to Trident Hotel. He seems to have managed to scale wall in spite of the barbed wire fencing and round-the-clock security monitoring."
"He could have passed by two security check points unnoticed," the official said.
The man is suspected to be mentally unstable. "If someone who is mentally unstable can do this, those in their senses can do much more," said another official hinting at the seriousness of the security lapse.
The Airports Authority of India and the CISF will investigate the lapses in the high security area.
Though round-the-clock perimeter monitoring is done by CISF personnel who sit inside elevated observation posts installed along the compound wall, small buildings abutting the compound wall may make it easy for one to scale the wall.
19/11/17 V Ayyappan/Times of India